


Jeung

by sunkelles



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, F/F, Femslash, Femslash February, Post s03 e14: A Tale of Two Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:28:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22747060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: Rapunzel tries not to dwell on the pain of Cassandra's betrayal, but it's the only thing that she can think about.
Relationships: Cassandra/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 87





	Jeung

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this after thinking about this one quote from PS I Love You. It didn't really end up still dwelling on the themes I was expecting to come as heavily, but I'm still going to leave the epigraph. I think that it still dwells on the idea of a bond that can't be broken nicely enough for me to the keep the association and the title.

There’s a Korean word my grandma taught me. It’s called jeung. It’s the connection between two people that can’t be severed, even when love turns to hate. You still have those old feelings for them; you can’t ever completely shake them loose of you; you will always have tenderness in your heart for them. You and I have that. 

\- Lara Jean Covey in _To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You_

* * *

Sometimes, when Rapunzel wakes up in the morning, she likes to pretend that everything is alright. She closes her eyes and imagines that Cass is right down the hall, just like she used to be. Rapunzel will burst into her room as soon as she gets up, ready to plot some new mischief to keep them busy for the day. Cass will roll her eyes, but she’ll go along with it because she secretly enjoys Rapunzel’s plans. She’ll smile when Rapunzel isn’t looking, and she’ll call her Raps with a soft fondness that makes Rapunzel's heart melt. 

But then reality slots back into place, and Rapunzel opens her eyes. She sees the place on her ceiling where she’s taped a blanket over her favorite mural of herself and Cass near the ceiling. She’s decided not to paint over it (she hasn’t given up on her) but she can’t stand to look at a painting of them together when they were so happy.

Looking at a blanket covering up the happy memories is certainly not ideal, though. She tears her eyes away from the blanket and forces herself up out of bed. _7 AM, the usual morning line-up_ she hums to herself. Brush teeth, get dressed, make her way downstairs for breakfast. She takes the long route that she’s come up with to avoid walking by Cassandra’s chambers, and she tries not to let her gaze linger too long on the Captain as he patrols the hall. 

An image of Cass in the guard uniform, grinning from ear to ear, flashes through her mind. Rapunzel keeps walking and tries to block it out the picture, because she only lets herself pretend in the safety of her room with her eyes firmly closed. She can’t let the dreaming get the best of her where other people can see. 

Because sometimes the dreaming becomes the crying, which becomes the clutching her pillow tightly and screeching into it and trying to will Cassandra back into the palace. And she can’t exactly do that in front of Cass’s father, right? He’s barely held himself together after they got him to come back. He doesn’t need to know how close Rapunzel feels to breaking down every day.

She smiles at every servant and tries to bounce her way through the hallway like always, propelling herself forward through sheer force of will. She stops for a moment at the painting that she made of herself and her mother, hugging. She lost so much of her life to Gothel, so many hugs that she could have had with her mother who loved her. 

Is that what Cass is feeling right now? Cass never had a mother growing up, and Rapunzel. Well. She never exactly went into detail with Cass about what happened in the tower. Zhan Tiri’s probably cooked up some story where Gothel was actually warm and loving- where if she’d just kept Cassandra, it would have always been like that one memory from the mirror. 

Rapunzel doesn’t think that could have been genuine, though. Gothel has never loved anyone, let alone the daughter she abandoned to steal Rapunzel. Gothel’s love was always a competition that Rapunzel could never win. She _must_ have been manipulating Cass somehow in that moment. Trying to get her to be quiet or do her chores or laugh at how easy children are to trick- something. _Anything._

Gothel couldn’t have really loved her, at least. Rapunzel knows this, however much her doubts are swirling… but Cass? She finds herself shuddering as she thinks about how much Zhan Tiri has twisted her thinking. How much of this change has been Zhan Tiri’s manipulation, though? Was this anger always there, simmering under the surface? Has Cassandra always resented her, ever since she decided not to leave Corona? 

Rapunzel feels her stomach curl in guilt and confusion. She doesn’t know, and she might never know. Cassandra wasn’t much of a talker before the betrayal, and she doesn’t think that she’s likely to explain her motives if ( _when_ , she whispers to herself) Cass comes back. 

She turns away from the painting and starts back down the hallway, forcing a smile as she passes a group of young girls. They shouldn't have to know about the storm swirling inside of her, just because she's miserable. The girls smile back at her, and she's sure they don't know how confused and desperate she feels.

Rapunzel just wants Cass back. She wants Cass back more than she’s ever wanted anything, even to see the lanterns. And she knows that might be bad for her. After this last encounter, she doesn’t know if she’ll ever get through to Cass again. Zhan Tiri has her claws embedded so deeply into Cass that even if Rapunzel manages to dig them out, the scars will be brutal and gaping. They may never quite heal. 

But she forces the smile wider and walks with her back straight and her head held high. Things are bad, but this isn’t over. Cass is angry and hurt, but she’s being manipulated. If Rapunzel can get through to her, she knows that she can get her to come back. If Varian can come back after almost destroying the kingdom, then so can Cass. Rapunzel knows it. She just has to keep trying, and eventually. Things will get better. 

They have to. Their bond is too strong for Cass to kill it so casually. 

**Author's Note:**

> I keep writing short angsty fics with these two. They're not really my best work, but I'm glad that I'm getting more into the habit of writing again. It's helping me through a stressful time, ya know?


End file.
